1.
Hokkaido
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Hokkaido, formerly known as Ezo, Yezo, Yeso, or Yesso, is the second largest island of Japan, and the largest and northernmost prefecture. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaido from Honshu, the two islands are connected by the underwater railway Seikan Tunnel. The largest city on Hokkaido is its capital, Sapporo, which is also its only ordinance-designated city, about 43 km north of Hokkaido lies Sakhalin island, Russia, whereas to its east and north-east are the disputed Kuril Islands. Hokkaido was settled by the Ainu, Nivkh, and Orok before recorded history, the Nihon Shoki, finished in 720 AD, is often said to be the first mention of Hokkaido in recorded history. According to the text, Abe no Hirafu led a navy and army to northern areas from 658 to 660 and came into contact with the Mishihase. One of the places Hirafu went to was called Watarishima, which is believed to be present-day Hokkaido. During the Nara and Heian periods, people in Hokkaido conducted trade with Dewa Province, from the Middle Ages, the people in Hokkaido began to be called Ezo. Hokkaido, formerly known as Ezochi Ezochi or Ezogashima, the Ezo mainly relied upon hunting and fishing and obtained rice and iron through trade with the Japanese. During the Muromachi period, the Japanese created a settlement at the south of the Oshima Peninsula, as more people moved to the settlement to avoid battles, disputes arose between the Japanese and the Ainu. The disputes eventually developed into a war, takeda Nobuhiro killed the Ainu leader, Koshamain, and defeated the opposition in 1457. Nobuhiros descendants became the rulers of the Matsumae-han, which was granted trading rights with the Ainu in the Azuchi-Momoyama. The Matsumae familys economy relied upon trade with the Ainu and they held authority over the south of Ezochi until the end of the Edo period in 1868. The Matsumae clan rule over the Ainu must be understood in the context of the expansion of the Japanese feudal state, medieval military leaders in northern Honshū maintained only tenuous political and cultural ties to the imperial court and its proxies, the Kamakura Shogunate and Ashikaga Shogunate. Feudal strongmen sometimes located themselves within medieval institutional order, taking shogunal titles, in fact many of the feudal strongmen were descended from Emishi military leaders who had been assimilated into Japanese society. The Matsumae clan were of Yamato descent like other ethnic Japanese people, the Emishi were conquered and integrated into the Japanese state dating back as far as the 8th century, and as result began to lose their distinctive culture and ethnicity as they became minorities. By the time the Matsumae clan ruled over the Ainu most of the Emishi were ethnically mixed, there were numerous revolts by the Ainu against feudal rule. The last large-scale resistance was Shakushains Revolt in 1669–1672, in 1789, a smaller movement, the Menashi-Kunashir Rebellion, was also crushed. After that rebellion the terms Japanese and Ainu referred to clearly distinguished groups, in 1799–1821 and 1855–1858 the Edo Shogunate took direct control over Hokkaido in response to a perceived threat from Russia
2.
Japan
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Japan is a sovereign island nation in Eastern Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies off the eastern coast of the Asia Mainland and stretches from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea, the kanji that make up Japans name mean sun origin. 日 can be read as ni and means sun while 本 can be read as hon, or pon, Japan is often referred to by the famous epithet Land of the Rising Sun in reference to its Japanese name. Japan is an archipelago consisting of about 6,852 islands. The four largest are Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu and Shikoku, the country is divided into 47 prefectures in eight regions. Hokkaido being the northernmost prefecture and Okinawa being the southernmost one, the population of 127 million is the worlds tenth largest. Japanese people make up 98. 5% of Japans total population, approximately 9.1 million people live in the city of Tokyo, the capital of Japan. Archaeological research indicates that Japan was inhabited as early as the Upper Paleolithic period, the first written mention of Japan is in Chinese history texts from the 1st century AD. Influence from other regions, mainly China, followed by periods of isolation, from the 12th century until 1868, Japan was ruled by successive feudal military shoguns who ruled in the name of the Emperor. Japan entered into a period of isolation in the early 17th century. The Second Sino-Japanese War of 1937 expanded into part of World War II in 1941, which came to an end in 1945 following the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan is a member of the UN, the OECD, the G7, the G8, the country has the worlds third-largest economy by nominal GDP and the worlds fourth-largest economy by purchasing power parity. It is also the worlds fourth-largest exporter and fourth-largest importer, although Japan has officially renounced its right to declare war, it maintains a modern military with the worlds eighth-largest military budget, used for self-defense and peacekeeping roles. Japan is a country with a very high standard of living. Its population enjoys the highest life expectancy and the third lowest infant mortality rate in the world, in ancient China, Japan was called Wo 倭. It was mentioned in the third century Chinese historical text Records of the Three Kingdoms in the section for the Wei kingdom, Wa became disliked because it has the connotation of the character 矮, meaning dwarf. The 倭 kanji has been replaced with the homophone Wa, meaning harmony, the Japanese word for Japan is 日本, which is pronounced Nippon or Nihon and literally means the origin of the sun. The earliest record of the name Nihon appears in the Chinese historical records of the Tang dynasty, at the start of the seventh century, a delegation from Japan introduced their country as Nihon
3.
Japanese people
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Japanese people are an ethnic group native to Japan. Japanese people make up 98. 5% of the population of their country. Worldwide, approximately 129 million people are of Japanese descent, of these, people of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries are referred to as the Japanese diaspora. The term ethnic Japanese may also be used in some contexts to refer to ethnic groups, including the Yamato, Ainu. The Japanese language is a Japonic language that in the past was treated as a language isolate, the Japanese language has a tripartite writing system using Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji. Domestic Japanese people use primarily Japanese for daily interaction, the adult literacy rate in Japan exceeds 99%. Japanese religion has traditionally been syncretic in nature, combining elements of Buddhism, Shinto, a polytheistic religion with no book of religious canon, is Japans native religion. Mahayana Buddhism came to Japan in the century and evolved into many different sects. Today, the largest form of Buddhism among Japanese people is the Jōdo Shinshū sect founded by Shinran, most Japanese people profess to believe in both Shinto and Buddhism. Japanese peoples religion functions mostly as a foundation for mythology, traditions, Christianity in Japan is among the nations minority religions. Just under 2%, or about 2.5 million, of Japans population are Christians, many Japanese practice Christianity in the diaspora in Brazil, which is home to the largest Japanese population outside Japan. About 60% of Japanese Brazilians are Roman Catholics, while 90% of Japanese Mexicans are Roman Catholic, certain genres of writing originated in and are often associated with Japanese society. These include the haiku, tanka, and I Novel, although modern writers generally avoid these writing styles, historically, many works have sought to capture or codify traditional Japanese cultural values and aesthetics. Twentieth-century Japanese writers recorded changes in Japanese society through their works, some of the most notable authors included Natsume Sōseki, Junichirō Tanizaki, Osamu Dazai, Yasunari Kawabata, Fumiko Enchi, Yukio Mishima, and Ryōtarō Shiba. In contemporary Japan, popular authors such as Ryū Murakami, Haruki Murakami, decorative arts in Japan date back to prehistoric times. Jōmon pottery includes examples with elaborate ornamentation, in the Yayoi period, artisans produced mirrors, spears, and ceremonial bells known as dōtaku. Later burial mounds, or kofun, preserve characteristic clay haniwa, beginning in the Nara period, painting, calligraphy, and sculpture flourished under strong Confucian and Buddhist influences from China. Among the architectural achievements of this period are the Hōryū-ji and the Yakushi-ji, after the cessation of official relations with the Tang dynasty in the ninth century, Japanese art and architecture gradually became less influenced by China
4.
Shinsengumi
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The Shinsengumi was a special police force organized by the Bakufu during Japans Bakumatsu period in 1864. The men were drawn from the schools of Edo. Although the Shinsengumi are lauded as brave and determined heroes in popular culture, Japans forced opening to the west in 1854, which required it to open its shores for trade or face military conflict, exacerbated internal political instability. One long-standing line of opinion was sonnō jōi. Loyalists in Kyoto began to rebel, in response, the Tokugawa shogunate formed the Rōshigumi on October 19,1863. The Rōshigumi was a squad of 234 rōnin drawn from the schools of Edo. The squads nominal commander was the hatamoto Matsudaira Tadatoshi, and their leader was Kyokawa Hachirō, the Roshigumis mission was to protect Tokugawa Iemochi, the 14th shogun, during an important trip to Kyoto to meet with the Emperor Kōmei. There had not been such a meeting since the third shogun of the Tokugawa Bakufu, Tokugawa Iemochi, the head of the military government, the Bakufu, had been invited to discuss how Japan should enact the recent imperial edict calling for the expulsion of foreigners. When Kyokawas scheme was revealed in Kyoto, they were forced to go back to Edo, but thirteen Rōshigumi members, mainly from the Mito clan, remained and formed the Shinsengumi. The remaining members disbanded and then returned to Edo to form the Shinchōgumi under the patronage of Shōnai Domain, initially, the Shinsengumi were called Miburō, meaning rōnin of Mibu. At the time, Mibu was a south west of Kyoto. The Shinsengumi were led by Serizawa Kamo, Kondō Isami and Niimi Nishiki, there were disagreements and tensions in the group, Kondō and Tonouchi killed Serizawa and then Kondō killed Tonouchi on Yojō bridge. Serizawa had also ordered another member, Iesato Tsuguo, to commit seppuku for deserting, all this infighting left Kondō as leader. On September 30,1865, the Chōshū clan were forced from the court by the Tokugawa, Aizu. The Shinsengumi were sent to aid the Aizu and guard the gates of the imperial court, the new name Shinsengumi may have been coined by Matsudaira Katamori around this time. The opposition forces included the Mori clan of the Chōshū and the Shimazu clan of Satsuma, in 1864, in an incident at the Ikedaya Inn, Kyoto, thirty Shinsengumi suppressed a cell of twenty Choshu revolutionaries, possibly preventing the burning of Kyoto. The incident made the more famous and led to soldiers enlisting in the squad. Troop Captains, In 1867, when Tokugawa Yoshinobu withdrew from Kyoto, the emperor Meiji had been named the head of a new government
5.
National Diet Library
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The National Diet Library is the only national library in Japan. It was established in 1948 for the purpose of assisting members of the National Diet of Japan in researching matters of public policy, the library is similar in purpose and scope to the United States Library of Congress. The National Diet Library consists of two facilities in Tokyo and Kyoto, and several other branch libraries throughout Japan. The Diets power in prewar Japan was limited, and its need for information was correspondingly small, the original Diet libraries never developed either the collections or the services which might have made them vital adjuncts of genuinely responsible legislative activity. Until Japans defeat, moreover, the executive had controlled all political documents, depriving the people and the Diet of access to vital information. The U. S. occupation forces under General Douglas MacArthur deemed reform of the Diet library system to be an important part of the democratization of Japan after its defeat in World War II. In 1946, each house of the Diet formed its own National Diet Library Standing Committee, hani Gorō, a Marxist historian who had been imprisoned during the war for thought crimes and had been elected to the House of Councillors after the war, spearheaded the reform efforts. Hani envisioned the new body as both a citadel of popular sovereignty, and the means of realizing a peaceful revolution, the National Diet Library opened in June 1948 in the present-day State Guest-House with an initial collection of 100,000 volumes. The first Librarian of the Diet Library was the politician Tokujirō Kanamori, the philosopher Masakazu Nakai served as the first Vice Librarian. In 1949, the NDL merged with the National Library and became the national library in Japan. At this time the collection gained a million volumes previously housed in the former National Library in Ueno. In 1961, the NDL opened at its present location in Nagatachō, in 1986, the NDLs Annex was completed to accommodate a combined total of 12 million books and periodicals. The Kansai-kan, which opened in October 2002 in the Kansai Science City, has a collection of 6 million items, in May 2002, the NDL opened a new branch, the International Library of Childrens Literature, in the former building of the Imperial Library in Ueno. This branch contains some 400,000 items of literature from around the world. Though the NDLs original mandate was to be a library for the National Diet. In the fiscal year ending March 2004, for example, the library reported more than 250,000 reference inquiries, in contrast, as Japans national library, the NDL collects copies of all publications published in Japan. The NDL has an extensive collection of some 30 million pages of documents relating to the Occupation of Japan after World War II. This collection include the documents prepared by General Headquarters and the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers, the Far Eastern Commission, the NDL maintains a collection of some 530,000 books and booklets and 2 million microform titles relating to the sciences
6.
Gin Tama
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Gin Tama, also styled as Gintama, is a Japanese manga written and illustrated by Hideaki Sorachi and serialized, beginning on December 8,2003, in Shueishas Weekly Shōnen Jump. Sorachi added the science fiction setting to develop characters to his liking after his editor suggested doing a historical series, the series has been adapted into an original video animation by Sunrise and was featured at Jump Festa 2006 Anime Tour in 2005. This was followed by an anime series, which debuted on April 4,2006, on TV Tokyo. A sequel titled Gintama first premiered in Japan on April 4,2011 and ended on March 26,2012, a continuation of the TV anime series titled Gintama° began airing on April 8,2015, and ended on March 30,2016. Two animated films have also been produced, besides the anime series, there have been various light novels and video games based on Gin Tama. A live action adaptation of the same name is scheduled for release in Japan in 2017. A new anime series continuing after the events in the Gintama° anime series, the manga has been licensed by Viz Media in North America. In addition to publishing the volumes of the series, Viz serialized its first chapters in their Shonen Jump manga anthology. It debuted in the January 2007 issue, and was serialized at a rate of one chapter a month, Sentai Filmworks initially licensed the series. The website Crunchyroll purchased the animes streaming rights and home video rights, in Japan, the Gin Tama manga has been popular, selling over 50 million copies. Publications for manga, anime and others have commented on the Gin Tama manga, positive response have focused on the comedy and characters from the series, while negative responses concern the mangas artwork. The Shogun writes a contract with aliens which allows the aliens to enter the country. The swords of samurai are taken away so they can no longer resist the aliens, after that, the Shogunate becomes a puppet government. The plot is focused on a samurai, Gintoki Sakata. The two of them rescue an alien girl named Kagura from a group of Yakuza who wanted to use her superhuman strength to kill people. Kagura joins Shinpachi and Gintoki to work as freelancers and the three known as Yorozuya. While doing their job, they encounter the police force Shinsengumi several times, on the other hand, Shinsuke Takasugi acts as a major antagonist throughout the series, as he wants to destroy the bakufu and sees his former comrades as enemies. Although the series story is episodic, there are also a few story arcs which are developed through several chapters
7.
Crossover (fiction)
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A crossover is the placement of two or more otherwise discrete fictional characters, settings, or universes into the context of a single story. They can arise from legal agreements between the relevant copyright holders, unauthorized efforts by fans or common corporate ownership, Crossovers often occur in an official capacity in order for the intellectual property rights holders to reap the financial reward of combining two or more popular, established properties. In other cases, the crossover can serve to introduce a new derivative of an older one. They may also involve using characters that have passed into the domain with those concurrently under copyright protection. A crossover story may try to explain its own reason for the crossover, some crossovers are not explained at all. Others are absurd or simply impossible within the setting, and have to be ignored by the series respective continuities. Still others intentionally make the relations between two or more fictional universes confusing, as with The Simpsons and Futurama, where each show is fiction in the other. Crossovers of multiple characters owned by one company or published by one publisher, have used to set an established continuity. This is especially true of comic book publishers, as different characters in various Marvel, for example, in the Marvel Comics universe, Spider-Man has frequent dealings with another Marvel hero, Daredevil, just as in the DC Comics Universe, Batman and Superman often collaborate. In comic book terminology, these guest star roles are common enough that they are not considered crossovers, rather, a crossover in comic book terms only occurs when a story spans more than one title. This has led to events, in which major occurrences are shown as affecting most or all of the stories in the shared universe. This story dealt with Zatanna attempting to reconnect with her father, Zatara, and seeking the aid of Hawkman, Batman, Robin, The Atom, Green Lantern, the first major crossover event was spearheaded by the Marvel Editor-in-Chief at the time, Jim Shooter. As a way to further toy sales he devised the Secret Wars crossover which brought all the major Marvel heroes into a twelve issue mini-series to battle a common threat, after the threat was dealt with they all returned to their regular titles. This Secret Wars was hailed as both a critical and commercial success largely because the events of the crossover had lasting effects on the characters, Jim Shooter later perfected his crossover at Valiant Comics with the Unity event. Unity brought all the Valiant characters together to defeat Mothergod but was told within the existing Valiant Comics titles, readers were not obliged to buy all 18 chapters as the story was coherent when reading just one title, but far more layered when all were read. Like Secret Wars, the Unity crossover had lasting effects on the Valiant universe most notably the introduction of Turok, the birth of Magnus Robot Fighter and the death of a major Valiant hero. Dark Horse Comicss Aliens Versus Predator franchise was a success that continued into many games, the comic crossovers from Raj Comics are very famous in India, in which the super heroes meet to fight a common enemy. Many of these crossovers have occurred between Nagraj and Super Commando Dhruva, in Kohram, all the heroes in Raj Universe meet to finish Haru, an extremely powerful enemy
8.
Viz Media
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VIZ Media LLC is a Japanese-American manga, anime, and entertainment company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 1986 as VIZ LLC, in 2005, VIZ LLC and ShoPro Entertainment merged to form the current VIZ Media LLC, which is jointly owned by Japanese publishers Shueisha, Shogakukan, and Shogakukan-Shueisha Productions. Seiji Horibuchi, originally from Tokushima Prefecture in Shikoku, moved to California in 1975, after living in the mountains for almost two years, he moved to San Francisco, where he started a business exporting American cultural items to Japan, and became a writer of cultural information. His idea came to fruition after he met Masahiro Ohga, then managing director of Shogakukan, in 1985, Shogakukan provided Horibuchi with $200,000 in startup capital, which Horibuichi used in 1986 to found VIZ Communications. VIZ Communications released its first titles in 1987, which included Legend of Kamui, to counteract this problem, VIZ expanded into the general publishing business and began publishing various art related books in 1992. Into these titles, Horibuchi began publishing manga, calling them graphic novels so they would be carried by mainstream bookstores, the plan worked and after several years, leading booksellers began to have dedicated shelves for manga titles. Sales also picked up when VIZ Communications acquired the license for the comedy series Ranma ½, the company continued to see success when it expanded into the anime distribution market, began publishing Shonen Jump, an English adaptation of the popular Japanese magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump. It also acquired another huge selling title, InuYasha, in the late 1990s, VIZ began making the push to move into the European and South American markets. When Shueisha became a joint owner of Viz Media in 2002, Shueisha also permitted Seven Seas Entertainment to license Hayate X Blade, and permitted Tokyopop to license Kodocha, Marmalade Boy and Digimon Next. In March 2010, Shogakukan began a partnership with Fantagraphics Books to issue a line of manga to be edited by Matt Thorn, in 2003, possibly in response to Shogakukan and Shueishas co-ownership of VIZ, Japanese publisher Kodansha formed a co-venture with Del Rey. In 2004, VIZ Communications was merged with ShoPro Entertainment, funding company Shogakukans American distribution division, Horibuchi became the new companys chairman. In 2005, Horibuchi started a division, Viz Pictures, for releasing selected live-action films in the US to theaters. On December 17,2008, Viz Media announced that starting on April 1,2009, Viz President and CEO Hidemi Fukuhara stated that he believes the partnership will help the company grow its anime holdings more effectively. On February 20,2009, Viz Media laid off a number of employees in order to help be more streamlined to face the current economic climate. On May 11,2010, VIZ Media again laid off a number of workers,60 this time and this time they released a press release claiming that none of their current product lines would be affected. In contrast to similar TV and film ratings, Viz also has set up certain manga ratings for their products based on their content, a, Suitable for readers of all ages. Such titles may contain little or no objectionable content, some, however, may contain mild language and fantasy violence but no swearing or nudity. May be suitable for early teens and older, such titles may contain violence, blood, use of strong language, suggestive themes or situations, crude humor, alcohol and/tobacco use, which some people may find inappropriate
9.
Shueisha
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Shueisha Inc. is a Japanese book and video game publisher headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. The company was founded in 1925 as the publishing division of Japanese publisher Shogakukan. The following year, Shueisha became a separate, independent company, magazines published by Shueisha include Weekly Shōnen Jump, Weekly Young Jump, Non-no, and Ultra Jump. Shueisha, along with Shogakukan, owns VIZ Media, which publishes manga from all three companies in North America, in 1925, Shueisha was created by major publishing company Shogakukan. Jinjō Shōgaku Ichinen Josei became the first novel published by Shueisha in collaboration with Shogakukan—the temporary home of Shueisha, in 1927, two novels titled Danshi Ehon, and Joshi Ehon were created. In 1928, Shueisha was hired to edit Gendai Humor Zenshū, Gendai Humor Zenshū continued 12 volumes, some issues being Joshi Shinjidai Eishūji-chō and Shinjidai Eishūji-chō. In the 1930s another novel called Tantei-ki Dan was launched and Gendai Humor Zenshū was completed in 24 volumes, in 1931 two more novels were launched, Danshi Yōchien and Joshi Yōchien. After World War II, Shueisha started publishing a line called Omoshiro Book. Omoshiro Book published a book called Shōnen Ōja, which became a huge hit among boys. The first full volume of Shōnen Ōja was released as Shōnen Ōja Oitachi Hen, the first magazine published by Shueisha was Akaruku Tanoshii Shōnen-Shōjo Zasshi. In September 1949, Omoshiro Book was made into a magazine with all the contents of the former line, in 1950, a special edition of the magazine was published under the title Hinomaru. In addition to Omoshiro Book, a version was published in 1951. The Hitotsubashi building of Shueisha became completely independent in 1952, in that year, Omoshiro Book ceased publication and Myōjō began publication as a monthly magazine. The series of Omoshiro Book were published in bunkoban editions under the Omoshiro Manga Bunko line, a novel called Yoiko Yōchien was published and Omoshiro Book was replaced with another childrens manga magazine called Yōnen Book. In 1955, the success of Shōjo Book led to the publication of currently running Ribon, the novel Joshi Yōchien Kobato began publication in 1958. On November 23, an issue of Myōjō titled Weekly Myōjō was released. In 1951, another edition of Shōjo Book was released, Shōnen Book was made. In the 1960s, another issue of Myōjō was released called Bessatsu Weekly Myōjō
